Niall Ferguson with a Confucius statue in Channel 4's Civilization: Is the West History? Photograph: Dewald Aukema/Chimerica

This has been a good year for programmes that inform, amaze and make you think, with the spread of HD and now 3D raising the visual bar. Professor Brian Cox pulled me in for the beautiful BBC2 series, Wonders of the Universe, which applied the same celebratory techniques – amazing images, stirring music – we associate with natural history programmes, to science. Cox is a pleasing mega star himself now.

The ascent of astronomy and astrophysics on the BBC would arguably not be possible though without the established backbone of Horizon, which put out an authoritative programme just two weeks after the Japanese tsunamilast March. Which is not to say natural history programmes have been eclipsed. Frozen Planet is my top choice for 2011, despite the polar-bear-giving-birth-in-a-zoo fakery row. The big stars in this series were landscapes, terrifying glaciers, roaring flows of icy water, and massive cracks generating icebergs.

It has been a good year for history. Niall Ferguson's polemical series Civilization: Is the West History? for Channel 4 asked why Western civilisations dominated the rest of the world. Ferguson rattled through our industry, protestant work ethic, thrift, individualism, and urge to build empires, before coming to his personal conclusion – it doesn't matter if the West is eclipsed, it has triumphed because the rest of the world has copied!

BBC2 produced an unmissable series, The Normans, narrated by Professor Robert Bartlett, a rugged new addition to television I'd like to see more of. This built outwards from pre 1066, and also filled in a gap for me, explaining how Scotland was able to collaborate, and keep its own aristocracy and royal family. I also hugely enjoyed National Geographic's programme Anglo Saxon Hoard, Gold from England's Dark Ages, about treasure found in a Staffordshire field.

BBC1's decision to open up the 10.35pm slot to one-off documentaries diverted me from Newsnight: a stand out was Poor Kids, made by one of the UK's most socially-involved independent producers, True Vision. The film followed the blighted lives of children, wise beyond their years, and highlighted fuel poverty, unemployment, hunger, erratic arrival of benefits: a world when a candle is the norm.

It's been a stellar year for Panorama, which barged into the 9pm primetime slot. I watched with stunned horror the undercover investigation into abuse at Winterbourne View, a Bristol care home for vulnerable adults, which led to its rapid closure in June, and a nationwide debate. Also outstanding, (I could barely watch) was Sri Lanka's Killing Fields – an investigation by Jon Snow into extra judicial murders as the long war with the Tamils ended.

I tried not to miss the eclectic Unreported World, which returned to Ivory Coast months after the civil war ended, and reminded us of the plight of Aboriginals. And finally, I adored Lambing Live from Cumbria; especially when gales kept disrupting transmission! Let us know what appealed to you in the comments below.

Guardian TV writers and bloggers choose their factual programmes of the year

Viv Groskop: The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse

Surely one of the most powerful biographies ever, regardless of whether you're interested in comedy and/or Monkhouse himself. The detail was meticulous and fascinating. I'm still haunted by the footage of his moving but semi-disastrous foray into "serious acting". And his crazy notebooks …

Flic Everett: The Hotel

This documentary series about the Damson Dene Hotel in Cumbria was touching, hilarious and utterly brilliant. We saw backroom staff problems – gloomy Polish cooks, and harassed Welsh manager Wayne. And we saw the guests – screaming drunken rows, gentle older couples, and writhing, sobbing children. The series summed up the British with tenderness and wit, and was, in my opinion, hugely underrated.

Johnny Dee: All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace

Adam Curtis's three-parter was a televisual mind bomb – the fragments of which are still lodged in my brain. It combined wonderful archive footage with well-chosen music and a provocative narrative that suggested, among other theories, that 1940s Ayn Rand was the catalyst for the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. The result was hypnotic.

Sam Wollaston: Educating Essex

An honest moving entertaining observational documentary series about life at a big urban comprehensive. Passmores has its problems but ultimately it works. Quite a lot of which is down to inspirational deputy head Mr Drew. Brilliant.

Vicky Frost: At Home with the Georgians

I am a serious fan of Professor Amanda Vickery, who approached the subject of The Georgians and their relationships with their homes with a real infectious enthusiasm. There was so much to enjoy here: far more than a history of Georgian interior design, there were also discussions about feminism, social status and marriage; diaries were read, private letters opened.

Stuart Heritage: Frozen Planet

Typically for a major BBC wildlife series, Frozen Planet managed to be brutal and breathtaking, heroic and humbling. It single-handedly justified the licence fee, even though it was entirely performed on a Basingstoke soundstage by a bunch of blokes dressed up as killer whales or whatever.